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ePaper created 2012-04-27, 18:36:07 | version 1.23.1
Where do your greatest opportunities lie? Claus-Matthias Böge: On the Ger- man market because of the volume. But we still consider Poland and Austria interesting and we’ve also already taken a look at Italy. It always depends on the price, though, as well as the future prospects of each individual center. The market just can’t be predicted. But opportunities will always arise for us to grow successfully. Our last three acquisitions were good examples of this. Whether the A10 Cen- ter, the Billstedt-Center or Allee-Center Mag- deburg: Our flexible, opportunistic approach combined with the ability to conduct these transactions swiftly make us a speedboat on our market. How was growth in 2011 reflected in the results? Olaf Borkers: Very satisfactorily. One year ago we planned for revenue of €184–188 million and increased this forecast to €188– 190 million after three quarters. In the end we hit €190 million - right at the upper edge of the range. That represents an increase of 32%. The other results were similar: The earnings before interest and taxes, EBIT for short, were supposed to fall between €157–161 million, in November we boosted the fore- cast to €160–163 million and in the end we managed a 34% increase to €165.7 million. Without the unforeseeable impact of the measurement gains and losses, we initially expected the EBT, or the earnings before taxes, to lie around €75–79 million and increased this to €79–82 million. In the end it reached €86.5 million, 35% higher than the previous year. Lastly, we originally anticipated that funds from operations, or FFO for short, would be around €1.48–1.52 per share. In fall we adjusted our prediction to €1.49–1.54 and in the end this figure settled at €1.61 per share. Then the question is:Were you too cautious in your predictions? Claus-Matthias Böge: We plan conser- vatively and flexibly. Although I wouldn’t say that the predictions we made were too cau- tious. Nevertheless we’re happy that lost rent, for instance, which we incorporate into our calculations, hasn’t actually been as high as expected in the past few years. We’ll stick to this approach. After all, our calculated pessi- mism could turn out to be right one of these years. We’re happy to “err” on this point. On the Ger- man market because of the volume. But we Deutsche EuroShop just keeps growing and growing.Where is this growth coming from? Claus-Matthias Böge: In principle, there are three ways that we can grow: acquir- ing new shopping centers, increasing share- holdings and expanding existing, successful centers. Like the previous year, we were able to pursue all three opportunities for growth in 2011. We acquired a stake in Allee-Center Magdeburg, increased our shareholdings in the facilities in Hameln and Wolfsburg to 100% and completed the expansions to Alt- markt-Galerie Dresden, the A10 Center and Main-Taunus-Zentrum. Olaf Borkers: And with the start of the 2012 financial year, we also increased our shareholdings in the centers in Viernheim, Hamm and Dessau to 100%. These may have been smaller investments, yet all were done with the aim of optimising our port- folio. Will the shopping center company continue to grow so strongly in the future, as well? Claus-Matthias Böge: At least that’s our goal. But conditions have to be right and the growth has to be profitable. While we don’t have a plan in the drawer, there’s definitely a list of centers that we’d acquire if the price were right. There’s no center that we absolutely have to have, however. Our port- folio is on sound footing and will continue to put a smile on our shareholders’ faces for the next few years. DES Annual Report 2011 9